Sadly, the tournament fights are routine and weighed down by a hackeneyed subplot involving Ning. To find the Wu Dang treasures, Tang pretends to sponsor a Wu Dang martial arts tournament, with his daughter Ning (Xu Jiao) participating as one of the contestants. But that promise is never truly capitalized on, as the action, while arriving regularly, never surpasses its perfunctory purpose. Immediately, we get some action highlighted by wire-fu and creative prop use, and while the fighting isn’t exceptional, the resemblance to old-time Hong Kong Cinema does charm. Tang, he discovers a map to the Wu Dang treasures while upsetting gangster Paul Chen (Shaun Tam) and his minions. If you’re looking for inspired screenwriting, don’t visit Wu Dang. Revealing that special something would be spoilerific, but even when spoiled, the details are not that exciting. Tang’s motivation is entirely personal he believes that if he reunites seven treasures hidden on Wu Dang Mountain, something special will happen. Tang Yunlong, an Indiana Jones-type professor who hunts down rare antiquities.

Directed in a disinterested fashion by Patrick Leung, who once made awesome movies like Task Force and Beyond Hypothermia, Wu Dang is a sometimes amusing but mostly boring throwback to 80s/90s HK Cinema, when decent stars and strong action were supposed to shore up loose productions. Martial arts adventure Wu Dang earns immediate goodwill thanks to its vintage Hong Kong Cinema-style filmmaking and Corey Yuen-choreographed wire-fu. They don’t make them like they used to, but sometimes they still try.

The disturbing romantic subplot is another issue. Avoid if your time is valuable or in short supply. Nostalgic throwback to silly martial arts adventures earns initial goodwill, but the uninteresting story and boring direction soon take over.

Vincent Zhao Wen-Zhou, Mini Yang, Xu Jiao, Louis Fan Siu-Wong, Dennis To Yue-Hong, Bau Hei-Jing, Henry Vincent Zhao and Mini Yang battle two-on-many in Wu Dang.

Wu dang movie